I while back I am emailed the academic author  you with regards to the recently published book Patched: The History of Gangs in New Zealand written by Jarrod Gilbert. In the book Gilbert uses a picture of a wāhine being raped by the mongrel mob. In my communications with Gilbert he argues that this picture is in context and has been utilised to ‘prove’ the level of violence perpetrated against women by gangs.

I would argue that this is not only an act of misogyny by Gilbert but also an act of re-victimisation of this wāhine. Therefore, I am questioning this books legitimacy and asking you the publishers if you would approve publishing photographs taken by a child abuser but published by an academic to ‘prove’ that child abuse exists in this country? My guess is NO, as it would be viewed by the general public as an act of pornographic violence. So, how can you justify using a picture of this women’s rape? Is it not merely sensationalism? Is it not re-victimising her?

I would also like to know:

A) If the women in the photograph was contacted and asked if her picture could be used?

B) If any money made from the books will be forwarded to her?

 

Yours

Dr Kyro Selket

Recognising the Peoples Potential

Our existing economic woes are said to exist because of the whim of the market with its sweeping invisible hand. For the poor this 'invisible hand' culminates in job losses and welfare dependency. ‘Welfare dependency’ is a term used by the right, (many) centrists and the conservative left, who deride those forced onto benefits by their very visible hands.

Welfare dependency exists because the Labour Party initiated, in the late 1980' - early 1990's, ROGERNOMICS . Rogernomics is to blame for the slashing of benefits, anti-union laws and halving the top tax rates. Māori and Pacifica peoples felt the effects of this through major job losses. This lead to consecutive governments further slashing employment laws, freezing benefits and tinkering with other policies that would see the poor, predominantly Māori and Pacifica peoples left behind. In 1999 Helen Clark abandoned policies that would target the growing gap between the rich and the poor. A decade after Rogernomics and Clark’s duplicity, Māori and Pacifica unemployment sat at 51%, in 2014 it is estimated that 26,400 Māori are unemployed.

2014 Māori have become the new driving force behind local economies. The hope is to increase Māori employment in local areas with the help of Treaty settlement money (see Te Rarawa leader Haami Piripi hopes for the North). Correct me if I am wrong, but Māori unemployment exists because Pākehā have not honoured Te Tirit o Waitangi and because of the illegal confiscation of lands? Thus using settlement money to address institutional racism must mean that Māori are being doubly penalised? Is it not 'Maori digging Māori out of the Pākehā hole.'?

All roads then lead back to Rogernomics ,the 2^nd major catalyst for mass unemployment and poverty of Māori and Pacifica peoples. Rogernomics the brain-child of the then Labour Party and built on by the National Party, penalises the poor, even today. Whilst labour might argue that it has moved on since Rogernomics, Māori and Pacifica families have not been able too.

So why would any Māori, Pacifica or even Pākehā working class peson vote for Labour? There is no REAL intention by David Cunnliffe to roll back the effects of Rogernomics, reminder Helen Clark -  closing the gaps, duplicity!

So this article is a timely reminder to all that neither Labour nor the Nat’s have Māori, Pacifica or Pākehā working class and or poor people in their sights. Any changes by Labour will merely tinker with already institutionally racist policies. With 27% of rangatahi unemployed, an estimated 128,430  Māori living in Australia and 40% of all Maori males over the age of 15 years incarcerated in NZ (this figure is higher for Māori women), there can only be one vote in  2014. That vote must be for MANA.

To quote Dr Kukutai on speaking about the effects of unemployment on Māori, “There is a lot of unrealised potential, a lot of waste.”

MANA and MANA alone see’s the potential of the people. Mana's policies reflect the potential of the people. Therefore, a vote for MANA is a vote for the realisation of the people's potential!

WAITANGI DAY IS UPON US

Speaking from Parliament today JOHN KEY talked (cultural interpreted) about the horrendous and unacceptable behaviour (CULTURAL INTERPRETATION) by two women at Te Tii Marae at Waitangi.


KEYS Statement:

...most people (NAMELY PARKEYHAR PEOPLE) enjoyed Waitangi Day, (COZ WE IGNORE THE POLITICAL SIGNIFICNCE OF COLONISATION IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND FOR MOWEE AND ONCE I CHANGE THE FLAG I MIGHT TRY AND IT TO NZ DAY)...but it was "one or two" (MOSTLY THE HARAWERA FARNO AND THOSE WHO SUPPORT THEM - NOT NAMING NAMES BUT THERE IS A LAWYER AND SOME PEACENIKS AS WELL) who used the media platform (THOUGHT WE OWNED THAT) to push their own agendas (NAMELY THAT PROBLEMATIC PIECE OF PAPER THEY CALL THE TREATY OF WHYTANGY) .

"Most people (US CAUCASANS) go to Waitangi to have a great time (WATCH THE MAOWE DO CUPPA HAKA AND GOD CAN WE MOVE ON AND REALISE PARKEHAR ARE NOT 'RACISTS' WE LET THE MOWES HAVE A PIECE OF THE PIE - SO LAX OUT - DO A HAKA OR SOMETHING)...

...but regrettably, (THANK GOD I HAVE THE POLICE BUT MOSTLY THE COUNTRY PAYS FOR MY BODYGUARDS) there are one or two people who go there to cause trouble (AGAIN IT'S THE HARAWERA FARNO AND HOW THE HELL DID HONAY GET INTO PARLIEMENT - MIND YOU IS HE REALLY EVER THERE? I NEVER SEE HIM, MOSTLY COZ I AM NEVER THERE BUT ANYWAY JUST SHOWS HOW FAR THE MOWIES HAVE COME THANKS TO US) and use the media (AGAIN DON'T WE OWN IT) as a way of advancing their own cause or their own issues, (AGAIN THAT PISKY PIECE OF PAPER I HAVE NEVER READ)" he said.
                -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cocacolonisation* of Queer

This year’s theme for the Auckland Pride Parade 2014 is ‘TIME’. The organisers state that the

New Zealand's Rainbow Community is the product of our collective histories, which we need to understand, honour and celebrate in order to move forward. Where did we come from? What did we feel and want? When and why were our community organisations founded? Where are they headed in 2014 and beyond? Who are we now and what do we want to become?

I wonder who exactly they will be celebrating, honouring and understanding?  It is certainly not the shared history of this country’s bicultural or lack of bicultural history – as is apparent in the use of this nation’s colonial term ‘New Zealand’. Being Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, intersex and bisexual peoples, you would think that 'we', of all peoples would understand that identity is imperative to inclusion. In saying this it is refreshing to see takatāpui guiding much of this year’s celebration (correct me if I am wrong).  Nevertheless, over the 10 years of Hero Parade, aka Gay Pride and the Big Gay Out, how representative will Auckland’s 2014 celebrations be? And is it perhaps TIME to stop trying to be a 'community' of likeminded, classless homosexuals?

Recently, much of the LGTB communities ‘celebrated’ the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Many purporting this to be apex of LGTB equality. Whilst it cannot be argued, ensuring that 10 percent of the population’s relationships be legally recognised, I question exactly what this has offered many of the queer communities in Aotearoa New Zealand.

In my 36 years out and proud, I have witnessed the rise of what I term ‘Gay Cocacolonisation’. This gay cocacolonisation, is founded on a loss of status for the middleclass homosexual. Since time memorable middle-class homosexuals have lived in a state of conflict about their position as (white) middle-class and homosexual.  Endowed with a sense of entitlement, the middleclass found themselves scorned and banished to working class bars and seedy nightclubs. Whilst this banishment has seen many fashion a political riposte, it is one infected with a desire to return to the lost opulence that is understood to be rightfully theirs. This was seen in the midst of the centre-left push for marriage rights.  As middle-class lesbians and gay men roared ‘we are just the same as our next-door neighbours’, you could feel the jubilation of the middle classes as they were welcomed back into the fold.

There has and never will be a ‘collective’ history of queer communities in Auckland’s Rainbow Community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Takatāpui, Intersex, Fa’afafine) or in Aotearoa New Zealand. There is however copious herstories/histories of colonised takatapui, working-class bull/stone/butch dykes, South Auckland's gay Pacifica and dawn raids. Poverty, addiction imprisonment and Auckland’s rent boys. Sadly, these herstories/histories will be masked by sumptuous advertising and hidden tacitly behind well-groomed queer chars, unemployed rent boys and castigated queer beneficiaries.  

Over TIME there has been more inclusiveness of our herstories/histories, however much; much more can be done to show diversity. So for now I will take TIME out and share with anyone interested the herstories/histories of the many communities I have been part of and remember that Auckland’s Rainbow Community is not the full story.


* Term borrowed from Annette Sykes 2013 Waitangi speech.

Why I am 100% a MANA Movement Member

Yes the following is an emotional piece because this morning I woke up feeling very emotional about some of the experiences I have had recently with various Pākehā.

I am frustrated with how people who do not understand how racism operates in this country call me either a white women gone native or a deluded apologist with no backbone. I know what racism is, I was on the wrong side of it as a you...ng unaware youth. As an adult I learnt about the other side of racism, firstly, through the Springbok Tour and then through the second occupation of Takaparawhau Bastion Point. This lead to years of reading and participating in action that I hoped would bring about Māori sovereignty. On entering university I moved away from politics all together and concentrated on my studies, finally receiving my doctorate in 2010, a year after Jordan Robert Herewini was murdered.

Jordan's death and the trail of the man who killed him brought me back to the realities of racism in this country. At the time some ignorant Pākehā wrote that such a death was bound to happen to such places as Mururpara. Later I watched as Pākehā judges and lawyers, journalists and tv presenters spat their institutionalised racism across the lives of Jordan, the witnesses and Quentin Pukeroa. It was here that I tasted some of the racism that Māori experience every bloody day in this country and it tastes like burning flesh. I smelt and tasted it in every word spoken in that courtroom, in every inference made about places like Mururpara and those who live there. I lived it intensely for 4 weeks in that Pākehā dominated courtroom and because I am Pākehā I was given the choice to walk away from it when the trial ended.

Well I didn't walk away. So I want to say to all those people on pro punitive justice sites, anti treaty sites and all those who feel for our story but cannot look beyond the 'oh that is sad but...' comments and especially to those who believe that institutional racism is somehow an excuse for allowing Māori get away with murder and all other imagined crimes - IT IS NOT. I have not meet one single Māori who believes that racism is an excuse to kill or maim people. What they - what we argue is that racism underpins our whole system, placing all that is 'white' - right (simplistic analogy but if I tried to explain this would be way to long).

Well the tide is turning people, because people like myself are no longer sitting back an leaving it to Māori to bring about sweeping constitutional and attitudinal changes. We are uniting under the banner of tino rangatiratanga and under the kaupapa of MANA to ensure a more progressive country. we are working help Aotearoa is a place where we can all hold our heads high and be accountable of our shared history and ultimately proud of our beautiful country. That's why I encourage all Māori in Ikaroa Rawhiti to VOTE and especially VOTE for MANA's representative Te Hamua Nikora. Please do it for Jordan Herewini and all those people we have lost to institutional racism...do it for our past, our present and our future.

Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou
ka ora ai te iwi

Another year is about to come to an end...on the 27^th Jan 2013 it will have been 4 years since Jordan Herewini’s life was horrifically taken from him. My beautiful friend Anita has not been in the world for two years. I still grieve intensely for both of them. I stopped posting on my blog a while ago and haven’t really returned to it until today. Mostly because I felt that there was nothing to say. Being me I questioned what I was saying, believing that what I was wrote about was already being said so why bother? I have felt for a while that I was pushing shit up hill. Still do not feel amazing so much pain and sadness in the world and so much work to be done to change it…but I have meet some amazing people over the past year. People committed to a different way of living and being in the world. So I will start writing again because it takes all our voices to bring about change…

McVicars Your are either with us or against us

Garth McVicar’s is a baboon there is not other way to say and it is great that he and his ‘ghost writer’ produced a book that reiterates this.

One of the things I have learnt about this man is his inability to think outside the square – everything is black and white and those in the black are criminals and according to him predominantly Maori or Pacific Island peoples as the following shows.

“Mr McVicar also took a swipe at Green MP Keith Locke and Mana’s Annette Sykes who said Tasers were being used disproportionately on Maori and Pacific Islanders. Mr Locke and Ms Sykes seem to conveniently overlook the fact that a corresponding 'disproportionate' number of Maori and Pacific Islanders are also committing the crime."

McVicar is also unable to take on challenge from anyone – in his book he argues that he has had to take develop a thick skin to cope with insults from those who oppose him – this is funny really as McVicar has no problem about throwing insults round when he wants – calling people who want different outcomes from him the  ‘P C brigade’ and arguing that “Their stupidity knows no bounds!!”

In another discussion McVicar argued that people like me “turn everything into a race issue!”  When challenged to read articles that showed how indigeneity influences sentencing McVicar vanishes into his redneck hole.

Another display of McVicar’s far right opinions involved the event which saw a 15-year-old schoolboy stab a 17 year old intruder in Auckland earlier this year. He argued that the boy should be given “a medal not being threatened with prosecution, these crims need to learn if they are going to comit crime they might pay with their life! I have no sympathy for the crim!”

This of course opened up a huge debate fueled by similar hurtful and racist comments he made about the killing of Pihema Cameron. Remember McVicar supported Bruce Emery stating that he was “a decent hard working citizen [who] is facing a murder charge because of his frustration…” and that “The Sensible Sentencing Trust ... wanted to see the killer of a teenage tagger set free, because he was forced to take the law into his own hands”.

This is in fact wrong many in SST did not and still do not support McVicar’s comments about Pihema or in fact about the young man who stabbed the 17 year old intruder.  As the discussion and challenges unfolded McVicar came out screaming and told members of Justice Hot Tub who had challenged him that

“… if this low life wasn't terrorising some innocent citizen he wouldn't have got stabbed, is that so dificult to understand? My family, my home is MY castle and NOBODY has the right to trespass. Don't make excuses, don't tell me he was on drugs or didn't get his mothers breast milk or some other pathetic excuse. If you don't understand that go start some pathetic 'loosers' group”.

This on a site where discussion and debate is encouraged by the administrators and most importantly by a man (McVicar) who wants to bring a halt to murder in New Zealand.

Another worrisome aspect about McVicar and the objectives of SST is how they reach their objectives. One would think that a lobby group that wants to influence policy changes on crime and punishment would do so with robust discussion and sound information. Instead it appears that McVicar was more interested in taking a leading court case as his starting point and demand changes from here. This of course involved the provocation law which he points out that he and Gil Elliot

“…successfully harangued Justice Minister Simon Power to have the provocation law removed from the statute books. A win for SST, then…even thought we wanted to get rid of provocation as a defence, and have done so, I now understand the need for its actually being in the law…I’m not 100 per cent sure that getting rid of provocation was the answer…”

This from a man who harangues the left or anyone that does not agree with him for ill thought out policy on crime and punishment.

Worse still that after making this statement in his book he goes on to congratulate the government for ridding the country of the ill thought out law that allowed the Waihopai protestors to defend themselves against prosecution with the “greater need” defence. He goes on to state that “the judge erred by allowing it to run, so we get a law change. Immediately, the opponents were saying “knee-jerk reaction”.

So should I leave this site and leave McVicar to carry on lording his racists views – NO I will not allow this man to blather on with his bullshit – I might not be changing minds but I will continue to poke this idiot with a long sensible stick!!!!! Hell its sport really!!!!